ShikaTema Drabble
by theschizokid
Summary: Where I'll upload random stories of ShikaTema when the inspiration hits me - yay for canon ShikaTema! First story is about a hormonally preggo Temari and a helpless Shikamaru
1. Chapter 1

ShikaTema is canon! I know I've got Blue Hour etc. to upload but now that Neji's no longer there and ShikaTema is canon I'm not sure I'm going to have the motivation to complete it… meanwhile, I've fallen in love completely with the ShikaTema pairing and so voila! This is to celebrate.

_**Pregnancy**_

Seven months of pregnancy and Shikamaru was beginning to worry about his wife. He'd understood perfectly the potential hormonal imbalances that Sakura and Ino warned him about when he'd first announced the news but he certainly did not expect the behaviour that Temari was so constantly exhibiting; Shikamaru was extremely concerned that Temari may have been developing something like schizophrenia or general insanity. He loved his wife dearly and was appropriately intimidated by her brothers but **he did not sign up for this**.

Case in point number 1: when Temari was four months pregnant she went through a phase where she would eat nothing but dango – dango for breakfast, dango for lunch, dango for dinner, the house reeked of dango and Shikamaru had developed a very strong friendship with the owners of his wife's favourite dango shop despite not even liking dango that much. At first Shikamaru rest assured that this was one of the _normal cravings_ that pregnant women normally get, that _pregnant women gorging themselves on sickly sweet snacks and refusing healthier food was typical_, that it would be over before he knew it and Temari would soon get sick of dango and start eating as she did usually… that did not happen. Instead, Temari seemed to get more and more obsessed with dango than ever before, and it was only when Temari had ordered Shikamaru to buy some at 3am that Shikamaru threatened a mental breakdown from worry and his wife subsequently relented.

Case in point number 2: Temari appeared to have lost her sense of time, because the child wasn't due for at least another five months when she had already begun preparations for Academy enrolment. The day when Shikamaru had opened the front door to his home and found his wife poring over enrolment documents and that his study had been converted to a baby room was a day that truly made him begin to panic for Temari's mental health. His wife's response to his shock was a simple _I know it's early, but five months is really going to feel like five days_. Shikamaru nearly lost his shit – his study was no longer his study and all his documents that constituted the organised mess in it had been haphazardly shifted to the smaller study. Tired after a long day of Hokage administration assistance, Shikamaru could only nod weakly and mourn the loss of his workspace quietly in the bathroom.

So when Temari had told him that she had something very serious to discuss with him, Shikamaru was one step away from exploding. The walk home from his office in the Hokage Tower felt longer than the journey home from his first mission as mission leader, and he bought six sticks of dango just in case he needed to placate Temari if she began overreacting while saying whatever she had to say. Shikamaru didn't notice the happy owner slipping in three extra sticks because he was being "such a loyal customer and avid fan of dango".

Gingerly, he opened the front door and found Temari sitting stern-faced at the dining table. He left the dango in the kitchen and promptly sat himself down opposite his wife, his hands cupping hers and resting on the wood table. She studied his face carefully, and her own expression quickly deepened into a frown.

Shikamaru cleared his throat, noticing the burgeoning belly poking through her kimono. "What is it?"

Temari had begun to glower at him. "Shave it off!" she cried interrupting him before her husband was able to fully pronounce the '_t_'.

He blinked, and his own face contorted into one of utter confusion. "_What_? Shave _what_ off?"

She snorted. "Your weird facial hair, of course." Temari rolled her eyes. "What're you trying to be, anyway? You look too much like your dad with that almost-beard and it's honestly super weird sleeping next to you with it."

Shikamaru opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't get a word in before Temari began again, "I mean, good thing you didn't have that thing before we got married or I sure as hell would not have had sex with you – father-in-law was an excellent ninja and an even better man but _damn_ it's really weird."

Shikamaru's confusion turned into bitter uncertainty. Yes, he'd wanted some facial hair because his dad had kept a beard – but so did Asuma! And he also felt that beards really added some _oomph_ to his cool adult persona. But he'd just worked a 12-hour day and could not deal with arguing with his wife. "Would it make you happy if I shave it off?"

Here Temari's eyes finally brightened and her expression relaxed into an eager smile. "Absolutely! I'd be able to sleep better at night, for one. And also I don't understand the whole beard thing in Konoha, like Yuura had a beard and see where that got him. What's wrong with being clean-shaven? Beards make you look older than you are, anyway. Why look like an old geezer when you're only 23?"

Shikamaru patted his wife's hand tenderly and got up. He moved to kiss Temari on her forehead before he walked to the bathroom. "I bought some dango for you on the way home," he said as he rubbed shaving cream on his chin. "It's in the kitchen."

Temari squealed with excitement and hurried to the kitchen, completely forgetting about the beard discussion. She tore through the white paper bag and her smile was speedily worn away by horror.

"I can't eat this!" she screamed, thundering through the house to her husband as quickly as she could with her seven-month pregnancy.

Shikamaru stopped mid-shave. He blinked at her and his eyebrows inched toward each other. "Why not? They're your favourite."

Temari rolled her eyes again and thrust the package in front of her husband's face so he could properly see it. "Look – there're _nine_ of them. _Nine_," she paused here and Shikamaru's face fell. "You know I can't eat odd-numbered food. You have to get me another stick."

Shikamaru dropped his shaver. The genius wasn't sure what face he made in response, but he knew he was more than ready to cry.


	2. Chapter 2

15 November – it's my birthday!

Okay everyone, I've received quite a few nice reviews from readers asking for more, so if ya'll could give me some one-word/theme prompts, that would be great.

I know this doesn't necessarily deal with ShikaTema directly, but I think that her brothers are such an integral part of her life that I couldn't _not_ write about the dreaded asking-for-a-sister's-hand meeting. So yeah. The faster the prompts come in, the more ShikaTema drabble to come!

**Brothers**

It was definitely out of protocol, but he was willing to take the risk; things were a little shaky since Kakashi had already begun handing the ropes over to Naruto and with any luck, his own target wouldn't even bother complaining about a breach in official courtesy. So when Shikamaru had politely asked Gaara and Kankuro to remain behind after the bilateral talks because Naruto had something else to ask them, Shikamaru tried his utmost to do so with extreme calm.

Kankuro raised a purple eyebrow, but when he saw that Gaara only nodded slowly and didn't budge from his seat at the oak table, he promptly pulled a chair beside his brother. Shikamaru moved to take a seat opposite the two sand shinobi, and he did so with perhaps more apprehension than when he first walked to his mother to tell her of Shikaku's death. The room was deathly silent and filled with suspicious expectation, the only sound being the dragging of the chair.

"Sorry, actually," Shikamaru started, his voice a little more hoarse than he would have liked, but he soldiered on and managed to pass off as nonchalant. "Naruto doesn't have anything else he'd like to say other than maybe thank you."

Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Okay, then," he sighed, gathering his backpack. "Thanks for the waste of time."

It was here that Gaara stopped his brother with a soft _wait, Kankuro_, and Shikamaru smiled weakly in thanks when the puppeteer sat back down again. The Kazekage stared at Shikamaru, and nodded for him to continue.

"It's about Temari," Shikamaru said – well actually, more like _sighed_ – and here he stopped in order to gauge the reaction from the two powerful men in front of him. When their expressions changed from apprehension to knowing boredom, Shikamaru took it as a good sign. "I want ask her to marry me."

Kankuro snorted, but said nothing more. Now it was Gaara's turn to speak, "That would make us brothers-in-law."

Slightly taken aback by their responses, Shikamaru could barely suppress his surprise. "Y-yes," he managed, astonished that _this was all they had to say_. The genius had predicted about 150 possible scenarios ranging from pats on the back to him landing in hospital – he had told Sakura to expect him – but this ambivalence was not part of his equation. "But is that a yes from you guys? I can do that?"

"It's not like you two weren't bedding each other before this, anyway," Kankuro shrugged. "And we _all_ know that you two have had a little somethin' somethin' going on for a while." Here his bored expression finally broke into a grin. "At least you're finally getting serious about her–"

"–Which is good, because if you hurt her we may have had to do _something_ to help her healing process," Gaara interrupted, his face having darkened for a second before one end of his mouth quirked upwards. "I'd like you as a brother-in-law," the Kazekage mused, "Your level-headedness in the war was exceptionally helpful. And your father was also instrumental."

Shikamaru tried his best not to hover too much on Kankuro alleging that everyone knew about him and Temari's unofficial relationship. "And there'll be no problem about the different villages and stuff?" All three men in the room knew too well that Temari was firstly fiercely loyal to her family, and then her village. Leaving Suna would remain a huge sacrifice on her part, but the Kazekage could help alleviate some of the administrative difficulties.

"Temari will always have a home in Suna," Gaara replied, "As will her children. Whether or not she chooses Konoha or Suna will be entirely up to her and whatever her decision, it won't change those facts."

Now it was Kankuro's turn to interject: "Besides, she may drag your ass back to Suna permanently."

Shikamaru nodded knowingly. "Thank you," he finally said. Gaara and Kankuro glanced at each other, before both of the Sand ninja turned to look at Shikamaru.

Kankuro had a smile on his face as he tried to imagine his sister, for all her hard exterior and tough persona, finally given space to be vulnerable. He didn't particularly have a soft spot for Konoha shinobi, but if Temari were ever given a place to be weak, he didn't mind that it would have been in Shikamaru's arms. _What do you call this_, Kankuro sighed softly, _matured sibling love?_

Gaara looked at Shikamaru closely – his hair was up as usual, and his hands were rough and scratched. The bags under his eyes were especially pronounced that day, and his lips were rather dry. Then the Kazekage's face broke into a small, serene smile. He got up from his seat and offered a handshake to the relieved genius opposite him. "Welcome to the family, Shikamaru."


End file.
